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Lack of single market muscle

THIS week’s blockade of French roads by lorry drivers striking over pay has once again highlighted the difficulties faced by the European Commission in trying to ensure the free movement of goods and services throughout the single market.

European Voice

11/5/97, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 2:36 AM CET

But it is hard to see what else the Commission could do, under existing EU legislation, except to keep up the pressure on the French government to try to settle the dispute as quickly as possible and do everything in its power to minimise the disruption.

The Commission can only take legal action if it finds evidence that a government has been negligent in its duty to try to ensure the free flow of goods, and officials have acknowledged that Paris is doing all it can.

This is not a case of a member state dragging its heels over implementing EU legislation or introducing new national laws which act as barriers to trade. No one would suggest that the French government actually wanted a dispute which could cost its national economy so dearly, or is keen to see it prolonged.

Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock has confessed his frustration at the situation, but has warned that any attempt to introduce EU-wide rules governing, say, the payment of compensation to firms which suffer losses as a result of such disputes would almost certainly run into fierce opposition from national governments. While each would be happy to benefit from such rules following strikes in other member states, none would be willing to countenance the prospect of having the tables turned when they faced industrial action.

It is, however, an issue which will have to be addressed. The creation of the internal market has led to a dramatic increase in the volume of cross-border trade and thus in the number of firms which suffer when industrial disputes escalate in this way.

A new initiative from Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti set to be unveiled later this month, aimed at strengthening the Commission’s arm in urgent and serious cases of alleged breaches of single market rules, reflects a growing recognition that the institution needs more weapons in its armoury if it is to ensure the level playing-field so vital to the success of the single market. But even if such changes had already been made, they would almost certainly not apply in this case given the French government’s efforts to keep disruption to a minimum.

Those who have complained loudly and bitterly about the French dispute in recent days should stop and consider how to combat this problem in future, instead of using the Commission as a scapegoat for their failure to address the issue sooner.